Stockbroker Advises Investors on Equities Investing
Investors who are still hesitating to return to the nation’s stock market have been advised to move in now and continue to invest regularly. The advice was given by a stockbroker and Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Finmal Financial Services Limited, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga.
Speaking to journalists in Lagos, Kwairanga said the Nigerian stock market has growth potential as many stocks are still trading below their intrinsic values.
He said: “My advice has always been that investors should make investing a regular habit, invest after thorough research and more importantly seek the opinion of a professional stock broker. Keep an eye on your investments and the fundamentals of the companies you invest in. Buy low, sell high. Our stock market has growth potential as many stocks are still trading below their intrinsic values. This is a good time to move in.”
Assessing the performance of the market so far this year, he said that the market has been on a rebound recently, especially from the end of the first quarter till now. According to him, recent initiatives taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to solve the problem of chronic scarcity of forex have boosted the economy and the capital market in particular.
“The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index has swung into positive territory after months of persistent decline and trading volumes have increased dramatically in the last couple of months. I would say the Nigerian capital market has done quite well in the last couple of weeks,” he said.
Kwairanga said before now, the macro economic instability impacted trading on the NSE very badly, as the index and market capitalisation were down by almost five per cent while the uncertainty lasted and trading volumes halved from previous years.
“As you know, participation in our capital market has been slightly skewed in favour of foreign portfolio investors for most of the past decade and this category of investors refused to participate in the Nigerian capital market while the forex issues persisted. I believe the drastic dip in liquidity of the Nigerian capital market was partly due to the refusal of this category of investors to play in the market while the macro economic issues were prevalent,” he observed.
The broker noted that investor confidence is gradually returning as can be seen by the positive numbers in recent weeks.
“Our prayer is that the government ,the CBN and other regulators remain consistent in their resolve to tackle the issues that have held our economy and this great country’s potential down in recent years. That will definitely boost investors’ confidence further and guarantee stability,” he stressed.